I'm indifferent toward monkeys. Feel free to draw more monkeys, everyone. Who am I to tell you what to draw anyway? I enjoy the stories and lessons being shared through the medium of monkeys though.
Im a musician and earlier today I bombed an audition that I’ve been working towards for months. Its been the only thing I’ve really worked towards for the latter half of this year and I just watched all my hard work go up in smoke. I really didn’t feel like I could continue on this path, that maybe i was just destined for failure. I don’t know if its a massive coincidence or an act of cosmic fate that you would upload this video today of all days, but thank you Mattias. This was exactly what I needed, and i feel a lot better now. I now realize I’m not trekking along a path; I’m climbing a tree.
Fellow musician here. I too needed this in this past days. I don't know how Mattias doing this but almost every time he posting something new it's just direct talk to my mind and soul. This is a catharsis, this is a mental hug that was so needed. Mattias is a wonderful person and artist and I am glad that such a person exists and he shares his creativity and thoughts with us.
I am trying to become a musician, and currently having a very hard time while performing. The monkey has thought every single thing I have thought about people more succesful then me lol. :/ But nonetheless art really is fun. also I'm happy there are musicians here
the 2nd monkey only simply acknologies his mistakes, he values the fun instead of greatness. That's what made him look "stupid" at first, very "simple" values and look not serious. That's not what art is about, art is about expression and why do so when you hate it?
I've been having a problem with art very recently that is precisely that. When I first started, I drew art for fun. But as I improved over the years and started to think that everything about my work had to be perfect, making art became more of a chore than anything else. It wasn't until recently that I got so frustated that I couldn't replicate my past feelings that I just sat down, and just decided to draw what I wanted to draw not what I thought I should. Your video helped a lot to cement that for me, thanks Mattias. Have a wonderful christmas for all the introspection your videos give me.
I just went through a very similar thing, and now I'm in a stage where I am just trying to draw what I want, not what I think I should draw as well. It's so validating to have heard someone else go through a similar experience!
@@technoir2045 First what do you mean by art from the past? I drew in HS and as a young adult, even took come college classes. I also played the guitar back then, poorly but I tried. Now I'm trying to get back into them but it is hard because, while I can see improvements from a month ago it is both much harder and not as good as my past drawing / guitar playing. In this case I'm starting over and MUST force myself to compare my drawings of this week only with those made weeks and months ago. Never compare yourself to another artist, even if that artist is an earlier, better version of yourself. My son took years of violin and when we moved his teacher told us that she never accepts former students. Relearning is just too frustrating. What I take that to mean is that the task of taking up art/music again is very hard, so se've got to buckle down and just do it. Don't compare yourself to others or an earlier version of yourself. Period. As far as my guitar goes I sucked back then. And I'm STILL frustrated at how much better I was back then. I know I felt frustrated back then, but that is more intellectual than the real pain of frustration I feel now. I've just got to find a reason to help me to stick to it. I'm hoping that I'll soon be able to get enough skill to allow me to enjoy the process of doing either. I hope this helps. Thinking about it and typing this helps me.
i keep my old art to see how i improve. it's both satisfying to see my improvement and fun while making art as i kinda make it up as i go along, i never know for sure how my art will come out.
I do the same thing but with a white board in my house i spend all day drawing on it learning different methods with one marker and then when im done I erase it
Very bad idea. It can give you a great boost just to see how far you've climbed those branches, to use the videos analogy. Looking back at your art from a year ago and see how it's different. No. Don't throw away your old art.
I extremely love two things: 1.The fact that your videos are morals for life, not just specifically art. 2. They talk about things I never see others talk about in the process of making. About the pain, the burden, and the difficulty of having fun on something that, though once brought you joy, somehow feels more of a forced labor now. Im glad I found your videos, and I'm glad you made them. Thank you.
This was the major issue for me and it's something I hear over and over talking to other artists. This is a wonderful video that not only describes the problem, but the solution. I'm going to draw something fun right now, thank you Mattias.
Just broke down last night overwhelmed by the same things, struggling with adhd and my place in art, and how I feel I’ve failed to get anywhere thus far. Comparing the ease I *perceive* yellow monkey has, even if it’s not a perfect product, thinking not all monkeys are made to paint. Today this video was recommended to me. I needed this and it just showed up, cute and well spoken. Thank you. EDIT: typo
I have been both of these monkeys. The yellow one is my childhood, and the red one is my current adulthood. After I graduated high school, I was left wondering how I was keep going as an artist. What career path I should take, what to specialize in. I needed a worthy portfolio, I needed to compete in the market. So I took learning very seriously. But it made art making as dry as a desert. I learned things I didn’t even want to and found myself dreading the thing I loved doing. Now I’m left with a decision. Go back to being the yellow monkey, and create art for fun with no profit in mind. Or buckle down and be the red monkey, and pursue art as a dream career - but potentially burn out my passionate flame. I just don’t know yet.
I say, do art as a side hustle. Not as your main career, but something you do on the side for either for fun or for some quick commission cash. While you're doing that, explore. See what other careers are out there. Don't just half ass it though. REALLY LOOK. Do some jobs just because they sound interesting or a test of strength. Not saying they have to be 150$ and hour jobs or whatever. Just something to say you've done it. But while you're there, talk with others, listen to conversations, make friends and connections. Because they might lead you to another adventure to another career you never knew. All while drawing on the side whenever you got an idea you want to make. Maybe you'll find something better. If not, them at least you gave it a fair shot. Then, you're passion for art will greatly improve. Just enjoy the baby steps as you grow.
I think the point of this story, is that the Red Monkey has nothing to offer. He may know art theory, and you could say he's better off as a critic of art, but he doesn't have the patience to finish anything because he doesn't know why mistakes are made in the first place. Art is fundamentally flawed by design when considering other mediums: photography captures realism and can alter the object/prop to seem realistic, 3D modeling calculates shapes as they overlap and move to the point of clipping, etc. Even then, all fields end up with mistakes anyway, so learning to deal with failure is more important than having no flaws. If I was a buyer/entrepreneur looking for talent on a deadline, Yellow Monkey fits the bill, and probably wouldn't say anything bad about the product to boot. Red Monkey could make great quality control, but if he's so harsh on himself, imagine what he'd say to other investors why he didn't finish his own work.
The red monkey would never make it to profit. Yellow is all tasks in life, find a day job and enjoy when you can. Don't put any stock into it, it's a means to an end. Don't let anyone tell you inside or outside that job you have to invest any more than that. Then with the time you get by not making the day job your life/mean anything important, think "what would I like to see?" Then pursuit it joyfully.
You can do both. Life is all about healthy balance. You can make art for content, learn, and still spend a couple hours even a week to have fun. It doesn't have to be only one way and one goal. Might want to see if there is a way to change the way you look at learning. Personally I find the study side of art is a lot of fun, and seeing that growth the next time I put the pen to paper is rewarding. But if you treat it work, and in return feel that the work doesn't pay off, or doesn't reward. It will sully the experience. There isn't one way to this stuff either, you find the ways that work best for and with you, and push past the things that hold you back. Make a portfolio while you work towards your main goal, have small obtainable learning goals, and spend a lil bit of time making things you generally find fun and free of the need to post/share it publicly for your own well being. And remember doing something is more than doing nothing, and every bit does help to contribute to something (if you suffer the same as me and not working feels a bit guilty) keep that in mind. Good luck.
Be an orange monkey. Have a fun goal in mind. Keep it small and easy to throw away, so no world building or intricate projects. Just one concept you enjoy that you can serialize. Then start learning the fundamentals to work toward that goal. Balance learning days with fun days. On your fun days, try out the new techniques you learned. On the learning days, apply the lesson to your fun concept. Eventually, rather than seeing learning as a chore, it will become the means to making your dreams a reality. Make that “no biggie” interesting project your portfolio. I hate learning human anatomy. The only thing that keeps me moving forward is getting to “meet” the characters I’ve dreamt up.
I relate a bit too much to the first monkey, I'm scared of failing even though Art... Is about failing. You fail again and again until one day, you find something that works... And succeed! Yet even though I know that, I can't shake off the feeling that I shouldn't fail. I should be like the second monkey, do things for the hell of it, not caring if it's good or bad, just do it.
You never reach this magical day where you succeed :) if you cant enjoy what you make, even just a small thing, then you cant expect for the enjoyment to just come out of nowhere. You gotta rethink your approach to art in general. I love creating and i love succeeding in something. And i know how devastating it is to just not be good at something. But if you let those thoughts overwhelm you, and become the only things you can think about, youll keep struggling until you decide to drop it altogether. Keep strong, and just try to play around :) its all there is to it
i'm a writer who usually would only write a scene if i felt it was coming out perfect on the first try - if it wasn't working out exactly right, i'd give up on it and "come back to it later." of course, most of the time i never did, so i barely ever finish anything recently i forced myself to just write through those moments. even if i felt like the dialogue was coming out stilted or the scene wasn't flowing right i made myself power through it, and now for the first time in as long as i can remember i have a full draft. it really did feel like breathing fresh air at the top of the tree. thank you, mattias!
If it helps, try taking a scene and completely rewrite it. Keep the general gist there, but don’t try to copy the first version of the scene. If you’re like me, the rewrite will be 10x better because now you’ve already figured out the “skeleton” of the scene (who’s there, what’s happening, what’s the background like, etc.) so now your brain can spend more time filling that skeleton out with fun things like slightly more in-depth descriptions of things, rather than burning energy trying to actively build that scene in my head.
@@KlutzyNinjaKitty you know i think i've done pretty much that unintentionally before, but never really realized that's what i'm doing...i might try to be more deliberate about doing this when a scene doesn't feel right in the future. thanks for the advice, friend!! :~)
A while now, I haven’t found fun in art anymore. Every time I draw I feel so much hatred for it. I feel like this video has made me want to fall in love with it again like I used to
3:08 Art is communication. Ive said this quite a few times, but that is the purpose of art. To communicate something. You can communicate with effort, you can communicate poorly, but at the end of the day if you are trying to communicate something, its art.
@@nyancat8828 well when you use an icon it has to communicate something. Otherwise why would anyone use it for an icon? Give me an example of one of your icons, describe it.
Red Monkey is basically the reason why Art was the only class I failed in school. All subjects in school outside of art and gym you can basically just sit down, and try to thoroughly understand something the first time around if you don't panic and give it your proper attention. Art and gym require you to repeatedly train your muscles to get better at doing something, and art also takes a certain mentality to do on top of that. Gym I regularly got a B in only 'cuz I tried very hard, but ya know, being one of the only kids that never exercised because they didn't like being sweaty, being in a place with lots of bugs biting them or like any of the physical activities in recess or outside of school, and ya know it's just a recipe for not having a strong body. I tried to do exercises throughout my life, but had red monkey attitude so I always bit off more than I could chew and hurt myself and would have to take a break until it healed before I try again. It was only until I got Beat Saber in VR where I get yellow monkey attitude where I just didn't care 'cuz fun game, so because Beat Saber is already fun and did not expect it to actually help with exercise. However, it let me start slow and build me muscles so I lost a lot of weight, was able to breathe a lot better, reliable way to trigger tons of sweat to get junk out of the body, and my arms + legs got some nice looking muscles. So I was able to start doing other types of exercises for the spots beat saber doesn't quite cover. I'm actually able to do push ups and stuff now, and I thought I'd never be able to. Still working on getting that six pack! It's kinda funny because I used to have a perfectly round belly, now it's kinda has this 8 looking shape, but it's still getting smaller as time goes on. Gotta say though, starting exercise is the hard part, and whenever you get sick you have to start again. Still going to keep at it though, VR games are probably going to be my go-to video games so I gotta be physically fit to enjoy them to the fullest. Also I main Sephiroth in Smash, he's got a six pack, I need to have a six pack :3 Also, was planning on doing 3D modeling this year as a new years resolution, but I got sick this year more than any other year so I kinda forgot about that as I was constantly trying to catch up on stuff because of all the sick time(co-workers keep comin in sick this year more than other years). I will now attempt to start simple by uploading a retextured model and put it into my schedule again so I can start doing stuff again before the end of the year. Then next year I will attempt to have at least 1 custom made avatar and/or world of decent quality. At this point I'll probably be making a world about trying to simplify some concepts about psychology and make them into visual and interactable visual format.
Speaking of muscles (I think you're right).. Not everyone can have a six pack because of our muscles being different. It's physically impossible without surgery in some cases. We all have different abs.
This reminds me of a lesson my professor told the class when we were learning computer science. "Why does a baby cry when you change its diaper? Because it thinks you're stealing his poop. Throw away the poop!"
This video hit me hard. When I first started drawing, I wanted to be good at it. I was proud at the stuff I made, but I'd get frustrated over every little mistake I made, and I wasn't improving. It got to the point where I just gave up on drawing, and gave up the hope of ever being good at it. I took a break from drawing for a long while, but I eventually got back to it. Except this time, I had no intention of being good at it, I was drawing for fun. And funnily enough my art skills have massively improved. It wasn't until I gave up on being good at art and switched my focus to purely just having fun that I actually started to get good. My art is far from perfect, but I'm drawing (and finishing) a lot more than I have before, and having a lot of fun doing so. And now that I'm more comfortable with where I'm at, I can look at my art more critically and learn from my mistakes without getting frustrated on making them in the first place.
As an artist who has the issue of “it’s not perfect as it needs to be.” And “i’ll never make it, I’m a terrible artist.” This really helps my perspective of art. Thinking of it like this has really helped to open my mind to the steps. So thank you for creating this.
This came at the exact right time for me even with being in engineering instead of art. I had stuggled in college with always putting in so much effort into each project in both school and personally because I knew it could be improved if I learnt more and more about how to present it better or cover all possible bases even if they were unnessesary in the long run. It has been hard to get away from that mindset partially because I enjoyed the aspects I improved and the methods I learned from it. However, my head was clouded from knowing it could be even better if I just did more and burned myself out repeatedly for things I felt the others did fine with even without all the information. I want to try going back to having enjoyment from learning more on what I love but not focuing on it to the point of being a requirement for what I make to be good or even passable. I want to have fun with what I do without feeling it constantly needs to get updated whenever I think of new things to add. I want to bring those thoughts to my next project and move on.
I remember in my digital art class during highschool, I kept missing my due dates due to the fact that I would take so long trying to perfect a drawing. My teacher eventually had enough and told me “Your drawings don’t have to be perfect, otherwise you’d be sitting all day drawing the same line over and over again. Just let yourself go, draw however messy you want and then clean it up later” Ever since that day I’ve been trying to follow his advice and it has been working nicely for me
I just don't understand why the art teachers in school seem to have made it their lives work to remove all fun from painting. It took 20 years to even dare touch a paint brush again out of fear of making mistakes and being called out for making mistakes. I managed to start painting only after realizing that nothing matters. That I am allowed to make mistakes.
I remember this, I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but I remember this. I was researching something and this just came into my recommended one day but sure why but I watched it all the way through and now it’s here again. This video always seems to show up whenever I get to my own head. I have a goal. It’s very hard to reach and I’m struggling because I’m overthinking things. Just seeing this video again it’s like a sign of getting me to just take a breath. Pace myself. it’s OK you’re doing great. Don’t worry about it too much. Just enjoy what you’re doing and keep doing it.
This is so cute. I draw as a hobby, and I have been missing the point on doing it thanks to constantly comparing myself to other artists and being hard on myself. This reminded me of how I felt before I started thinking that way. I hope I can look at drawing in the same way as before, and remember that I always did it for fun. Very wholesome video :)
Don't pressure yourself with something. Take your time, accept mistakes, and allow yourself to be "terrible". You don't need to be the best, just make sure you enjoy what you are doing. If you can, try to improve a bit with it. Things take time, and sometimes stuff might be stressful, but that's okay. Don't push yourself to be "better" and go at your own pace to where it's enjoyable.
bro just made me realize i could get over my social anxiety if i just went about it the way i go about art this literally goes with anything and everything well i just grew a third braincell thanksss
Here the author uses monkeys to represent his frustration at being unable to draw a banana It isn't tragic because monkeys love bananas, but because they love bananas and are unable to convey their passion to themselves and others through the medium of art This video is bananas
I really needed this,im slowly losing motivation for art and i didnt do it out of fun making me more and more stress ,but im glad this video exist and have shown me also inspired me to keep going and have fun.. thank you!! The tree feel so much fun to climb now
Yep, and personally I didn't have fun "climbing' with just making art pieces, it wasn't until I started learning animation that I really enjoyed each "branch", and it took a long time to find an art with a creation process I enjoy. Fantastic video
This is one of the reasons why I love this creator's content; I feel like he understands the psychological and emotional sides there are to not just drawing, but wanting to be an artist. I see a lot of parallels with myself and the first monkey, and I know that's something I need to work on, and having this analogy made by the second monkey, it makes that process a little easier. Amazing video!
I relate to this so much. I'm a perfectionist and seeing other people who do art actually for fun and create great pieces make me want to quit even more. It's so frustrating, it's like school completely ruined the fun factor art had and now it's been drilled into me that i need to be good enough to have it as a career.. and that in itself ruined my talent.
I wish more people understood the point of art is not exactly to make something beautiful but to make something you ENJOYED making, and having the result be beautiful to you is just another fun part of art!!
I used to be the first monkey for so long. I was so obsessed with creating something to be proud of, to wow others with my skills. And I was never happy. I spent hours trying and failing to make my visions are complete and perfect as possible. I hated doing art. Now, I let myself get lost in the process, creating because it feels good to put pen to paper. I’ve never been happier with my art since I’ve approached it this way. Art to me is no longer the destination, but the journey it took to get there. All of the stress and anxiety I had over ruining a piece that SURELY would get hung in the louvre is gone. Now it’s sketchbooks full of ideas and half baked drawings I had fun with
As a musician im happy to have found this. Its so easy to pick up my music and spend so much time worrying about every litte thing. Every high note I know isn’t perfect, every big jump, every little thing that i need to get natural. I used to get freaked out more and more, messing up when i would play even if the mistake was small. When I was in my long practice sessions, however, starting to reach my point of giving up, I would sound my best. I realized that when i worry about every little thing to such a degree I lose the fun and in hand, the power of passion. Its hard to recognize these things and to understand them, but your videos allow for these feelings we have to be cemented. This channel is a blessing.
I'm really glad the algorithm brought me this video at this point In my life. Coming from a traditional art background, I went to school to study 3d animation, it was easy until it wasn't, and I still question if I'm good enough to pursue this career. I look at the other professionals in the industry and I get discouraged. With the abundance of knowledge on the internet, I've wanted to start over so many times. I think I'm going to keep trying, even if I don't see the end goal right now.
this describes it so well. when i try too hard and focus only on the goal i ALWAYS hate the result. but when i simply enjoy doing it i find myself loving the result, even if it is far from perfect
The other day, I was kinda tired, kinda bored, it was probably a little late, sun may have already gone down, maybe close to six, maybe closer to midnight, I dunno. And I was at my computer, doing something I can’t remember. I had been doodling one character from a thing I like on and off for days now, and so I decided to open up another window of MS Paint and started drawing. Didn’t even draw the character, just some random ADHD thoughts I had. And then I drew a line, and that line had a curve. A PERFECT curve. You see, there was a different character from another thing I like that I had tried drawing before on paper and in Paint, but it never came out good. And it was all because of this one. F*cking. Curve. That the character has that’s super hard to draw, and I was literally just kinda doodlin’ and scribblin’ and then that guy popped into my head and I was astonished at how well I had done with that curve. So, I hit Ctrl+S, named my file, and cropped it down to just that curve. Then, I just kinda… drew. I did like 7 revisions slowly going from “I’ll just do the outline” to “Well, he literally only has 3 colors, I can do that” to “Well, he’s look better shaded” to “Wow, that’s awful up there. Let me fix that” to “Let’s add this detail here because it’s a big effort for a small payoff but it’s the small things that matter” and yeah now ofer the past 2 days I’ve just been kinda drawing him because I accidentally drew a perfect curve. It’s proably the only line I’ve neither undone, touched up, covered over, or entirely erased in the entire drawing. Sorry if this is long and/pr rambly, I’m just tired RN it’s like 12:13 AM of April 17th RN in my timezome and I already took some metalonin like befpre I started writing this so I’m a sleepy sorry if I spell something wrong
I've had this in my watch later for a while now, but dear god I've needed to hear this for so long. Without getting too personal, let's just say I got too caught up in the competitiveness of the art community. I started to hate my work because it didn't look exactly how I wanted it to. I lost sight of WHY I've been doing art my whole life. Because art is fun! And you really don't need a reason other than that.
This is such an accurate representation of how people view art. Artists aren't born with some magical power, we literally just practice our skills. We aren't naturally able to make art where others aren't. I'm a strong believer that there is no such thing as talent. Everyone has the potential to be a great artist, you just need to make art. Of course burnout and artist block is real, but everyone can make art. It's just a matter of not giving up right at the beginning, you really do need to keep going.
I have been afraid of this video. I instinctually knew what it was about… And I’m not finished but I feel like my whole journey as an artist was exactly this.
The algorithm knows to fucking much man, Yesterday was probably one of the worst days ever in regards to my art journey, i just looked at everything I'd done with disgust, and i was thinking that maybe it was a mistake to start drawing because its been 6 years with hardly any improvements, i really needed this right now. Thank you.
thank you so much I really needed that I used to enjoy drawing while then I considered learning art after a couple of days of practice I didn't do progress much my sketches just didn't look as good as other artists I kept trying to sketch over and over starting over whenever I feel it is not looking good after couple days of that I thought to myself maybe art is just not for me and I am not as good as I thought. i think now i know where i was going wrong thank you again.
I do actually climb tree for fun, and it's exactly as you say. You just have to reach out to the next branch. The thing is, it can be terrifying to stand up on a branch, and reach all the way up to grab the next one when you're 20ft off the ground and a single slip can mean serious injury or even death. It's really gets your blood pumping. It can feel the like the same thing with art, even when it's not a source of income, but just a hobby. It good to remember that you can't get hurt from messing up a painting, even though it can really feel scary. Have the courage to do it anyways and you will be amazed by how high you can climb. :) This is advise to myself as much is it is to anyone else. Good luck out there, and remember it's ok to be afraid.
I really love how motivating your videos always are. I really struggle in doing things simply for fun but maybe thinking about it in terms of climbing trees might honestly help me.
Honestly thank you so much for this. Although it’s not visual art, I’ve been having some similar feelings with creating music and decided to just quit. But this video gave me some hope. So thanks. Thanks a lot
Despite the fact that this video isn't teaching me drawing techniques and such, this motivated me to not care about the imperfections of both my drawings and the stories I write. Drawings are already on the great path as I never really took it seriously, but writing on the other hand is different for me. I love evoking my creativity into the stories I write, but I often get distracted from actually writing this wonderful ideas just because the stories don't flow right or because the words used kept getting repetitive. I always focus on making outlines for the stories and restricting myself into them because of it, leading me to no longer writing according to what I want. I also used to be the same in regards to my drawings, wanting to live up to the skills my brother had as I was always in awe from his art. But after years of giving up on drawing, I finally came back to it not because I wanted to start over from my past mistakes, but because I wanted to enjoy doing it just for fun. I didn't care about what strokes I do or the fact that the brush I use are only for sketches. I just wanted to draw, and that made my drawings a lot more better than I had expected. And with that. through watching this video, I realized the restrictions that I had put on myself in regards to both drawing and writing. I'm beginning to realize why I gave up on writing stories. I now understand why my drawings have been improving compared to my past drawings. And so, I guess I got my motivation back to write again, especially with the fact that I had already started writing last week. I was stuck on a writer's block and this had help me bring me back to my groove. Just wanted to rant out my thoughts about this video. Hadn't expected to write it this long to be honest.
This is the best medicine to artblock ever, I instantly wanna just create again,whatever it is, wether its a videogame or making a new song, I wanna express myself again, thank you~
The art teacher in my school is badass af, he's chill with a lot of stuff. I just make art because i have cool ideas i want to see and idk cool edgy art is a hell yes. (I've been drawing ever since i was in 2nd grade, so it took years) Hope i can into art class next year.
What a creative way to talk about the depth of a medium! As an oil painter myself I love this. I think this is a great way to explain why video games are such a critically underrated medium; The depth and the rulesets in interactive art greatly expands the creative potential. Your work is such an inspiration
There are some pieces that i approach like the red monkey: mainly work i want to do for myself. When someone asks me a drawing, i instead go full yellow monkey mode: i just do it the best i can, retrace, go back, just go with the flow and what would look better. I think it's because i am the only receiver when i paint for myself, so i am on my own "eternal waiting room" while i prioritize others' enjoyment. Dunno if anyone else is built this way, but at least I'm learning to enjoy my works too. And studies masters in another sketchbook: therefore i have no perfect goal near my scribbles, and can apply my lessons more fluidly in my own way.
Ever since I started just having fun with my art, my improvement has gone at lightning speed. I literally can't relate to people who say art is pain and hard work anymore. Figuring out shapes and colors and lines is the funnest thing in the goddamn world, even and especially when I fail!!!! I really like this video. Besides, it turns out actually looking forward to and just enjoying an activity is extremely good for continuing to be motivated to do it :P
Welp. This has been the most relatable thing I’ve seen ever since I started trying art It’s just before now I haven’t passed the “This isn’t perfect” phase
Remember, there is nothing wrong about copying works of other people for fun/practice/or to have it hang in your kitchen. It does help, it does make you go through logical steps start to finish, even if you don’t know how exactly something was made. Art is also about practice. You like something when you see it turn out good. To make it turn out how you want it, you need practice. Every piece you made matters, even one you hate. The first monkey didn’t do unwell with the paintings it didn’t enjoy making, it was part of the practice. It wasn’t all for nothing, you have to remember that. When you climb trees, you eventually get better from each tree you climb.
I absolutely needed to see this. As I finished this video, I felt like I looked at my own work and my worries about it and just took a big sigh of relief, and I can move forward instead of stopping myself. Thank you, and as always, amazing work, it truly has touched me
I feel like these stories are a great way to learn something. It’s easy to follow, fun to watch and I understand the words and metaphors being used. Very well done and inspirational!
its easy to say "draw what makes you happy", or to tell someone not to think so deep about it. but how do you actually be more like that second monkey? how do you stop worrying or just let yourself create? even in trying to do things i think i'd like, the first monkey's logic of "no, that's wrong" chimes in. i don't know how to move past it.
I like to scribble sometimes to test out my digital brushes. I scribble on multiple pages, try different strokes, color schemes, maybe I draw a random shape/form, just whatever. Some things I scribble and doodle gives me life, others gives me ideas, colors inspire me, and etc. Make things that are low stakes. Draw your favorite video game characters. Draw a room and put stuff in it. Draw a cube, then draw it again with parts blown off, swiss-cheesed, worms drilling through it, turn it into a house, turn it into a snow cube (cube version of a snow globe), etc Don't try to make a mona lisa. Make desk doodles instead.
I've recently started working with leather. I just tell myself it's practice, I'm doing a rough draft, or that I need it to be crappy so I don't mind messing it up.
draw dogshit on purpose also im gonna contradict the other person and say don't draw your favourite characters if you wanna cut loose, because when your drawing your favourite its a lot more noticeable and frustrating if you mess up or go off model. for me this is mostly the case with female characters. male characters are a lot more laid back because they usually have a lot more rugged details and aren't meant to look cute or attractive, so you can get away with messing up their face a little without it sticking out. drawing monsters is like the extreme of that. if you're ever feeling wound up tight, try drawing a goblin or something because theyre literally impossible to fuck up. theyre supposed to look weird and ugly, go nuts. linework is a big thing with relaxing too. by all means be precise and deliberate with your strokes when you want something to look clean, but focusing on that can make you too rigid. go full on chicken scratch once and a while if your drawings feel flat, because that carefree style of drawing will invigorate you with a lot of energy and confidence. theres also the matter of expectations of the end result. you will never be able to get something to look quite like how you imagined it in your head, and this can lead to disappointment. but some of the best drawings you'll do will be improvised, with no particular 'image' in mind beyond bits and pieces of ideas that come to you as you go. thats what the branches in the video are about; there are an endless amount of choices and creative decisions to make at every single step of the process, but it doesn't matter which path you take because all of them will eventually lead you to the end. if you try to force a specific result that you have in your head, you're essentially forcing yourself to go down one specific path, a path you may not be skilled enough to take. this inevitably leads to frustration and feelings of inadequacy. thats why you need to avoid attachment to your artwork. don't delete it, because old work can be good for a benchmark or a reference for a technique you've forgotten, but don't ever worry about how your art turns out. its about the process, not the result. i.e, its about the climbing, not reaching the top.
also just wanna add that drawing on physical mediums instead of digital can very quickly teach you to become unattached. being able to ctrl Z anything can instil a perfectionist mindset, one that can trap you in indecision and have you spend an inordinate amount of time on a single drawing. im not even over this myself, i dont draw traditional very often because botching an otherwise good drawing with one wrong line is still annoying.
As a person who likes to draw, only this few years I started to love my art, when I always drew in my phone or in paper, I always looked at the drawing and thought "this doesn't look as I imagined it" And "other people make better art than this", I always felt like my work was horrible, and after probably a year of not drawing anything, I decided to do sketches, tiny sketches of things I liked at the moment, I decided to look up tips of how to draw better, and trying to make my artstyle better. And after a few months, I did a complete drawing, and I felt happy, because I loved how it looked, and I had fun doing it. Art is fun.
i’m a soon to be animation student at a school not very known for its animation. i feel like i failed because i’m not going to an art school, i got denied from my dream program at my dream school and it felt like everything fell apart. i’m afraid that i’m not a very good artist, and that i was never meant to be. that some people just have the skills and the talent and i don’t. but this video made me feel a bit better about everything. i love art, i love it a lot and that’s why i keep doing it even when things don’t go my way. because i’m having fun, and eventually i’ll be able to do what i want. i’ll be able to be at the top of that tree. and even if it takes a while to get there, maybe i’ll be alright
I wish I could actually put this lesson into practise. I've been this way for so long that Monkey 1 is engrained into every thought I have. I agree, I want, but when I try to impliment it never works. It's like I know it, but I don't believe it...
I FEEL LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR THIS ONCE I STARTED DRAWING MORE FOR FUN INSTEAD OF WORRYING ABOUT HOW IT WAS GONNA TURN OUT, I STARTED DRAWING MORE AND I GOT A LOT BETTER, ITS HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT THIS VIDEO DOES PERFECTLY
I've tried a lot of creative endeavors and dropped all of them right up until I bought a guitar impulsively at 3 in the morning after a particularly nasty day. Even after 4 years, I'm still awful at playing it, but I have a lot of fun being awful and that's all that matters to me. People are too good at taking their hobbies far too seriously and ruining what makes them worth doing in the first place.
Bruh it wont let me edit the comment Anyways, thankyou so much for sharing this idea around the world. This video is going in my favourites playlist. [i really can't express enough how much i love this video, talking about something i never knew if I'd find relatable with people but i find very eye opening Soz im very tired so it prob dont make sense, i cant be bothered to write it all out properly lol]
![Lil Uzi Vert - We Good [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DrSfBULAsek/mqdefault.jpg)
holy shit this is like god tier children's book
FR
Someone should turn this into a children's book tbh
TRUE.
that pfp gives me late 2019-mid 2020 memories man i miss them
Maybe if they simplified the language for children
I like monkeys. Feel free to draw more monkeys Mattias
I hate monkeys. Please draw more monkeys Mattias
I like monkeys. Feel free to draw a monkey @filipmokrejs3611.
make em assorted colors Mighty Morphin Monke
I'm indifferent toward monkeys. Feel free to draw more monkeys, everyone. Who am I to tell you what to draw anyway?
I enjoy the stories and lessons being shared through the medium of monkeys though.
@Aidan Kelly yeah heard about those it's completely hideous (my first comment was a joke)
Im a musician and earlier today I bombed an audition that I’ve been working towards for months. Its been the only thing I’ve really worked towards for the latter half of this year and I just watched all my hard work go up in smoke. I really didn’t feel like I could continue on this path, that maybe i was just destined for failure.
I don’t know if its a massive coincidence or an act of cosmic fate that you would upload this video today of all days, but thank you Mattias. This was exactly what I needed, and i feel a lot better now. I now realize I’m not trekking along a path; I’m climbing a tree.
Fellow musician here. I too needed this in this past days. I don't know how Mattias doing this but almost every time he posting something new it's just direct talk to my mind and soul. This is a catharsis, this is a mental hug that was so needed. Mattias is a wonderful person and artist and I am glad that such a person exists and he shares his creativity and thoughts with us.
Same thing here. Glad to see other musicians in an art channel lol
this comment made me anxious about my audition tomorrow haha
but at the same time this video made me calm about it
I am trying to become a musician, and currently having a very hard time while performing. The monkey has thought every single thing I have thought about people more succesful then me lol. :/ But nonetheless art really is fun.
also I'm happy there are musicians here
Have you ever considered doing things without effort?
i feel personally called out and spoken directly to
thank you mattias
same dude, same
Yes thanks so much
that means you learnt the lesson.
the 2nd monkey only simply acknologies his mistakes, he values the fun instead of greatness. That's what made him look "stupid" at first, very "simple" values and look not serious. That's not what art is about, art is about expression and why do so when you hate it?
same, a few years ago i was the first monkey, searching for perfection, now i became the second monkey, and it is beutiful and glorius
I'm stuck on a tree and cannot get down.
jump, it might hurt but you're still alive, you'll feel happy, refreshed.
Help my spine is exposed now.
be like the red monkey and overcome the tree
Enjoy the view.
@@AdrothRian all I see is my exposed spine.
These monkeys can let go of things better than me, dang.
These monkeys also ain't real, dawg
It is a learnable skill. You too can let go if you work on it. You got this!
@@chaosorbCRB THE MONKEYS ARE REAL, THEY HAVE ME TRAPPED IN THEIR BASEMENT FOR "ART," HELP
@@PiccoTerra not everyone for example me
@@joalex79 oh? why not neurodivergent?
Fuck yes. This is it. This is what it means to be an artist. This video means a huge amount to me. Thank you for making it.
huh
You’re right
YES SAME OH MY DAYS
Yeah, art isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey
I like how the red monkey is more triangler reflecting his edgy nature where the yellow monkey is rounder reflecting his innocent nature.
Shape language is awesome
i am also 5 years old
@@karlgerg2626 get out of youtube and move to the kids version
@@parlsuk it's worse
@@parlsukat this rate im pretty sure regular youtube is better than the kids version
I've been having a problem with art very recently that is precisely that. When I first started, I drew art for fun. But as I improved over the years and started to think that everything about my work had to be perfect, making art became more of a chore than anything else. It wasn't until recently that I got so frustated that I couldn't replicate my past feelings that I just sat down, and just decided to draw what I wanted to draw not what I thought I should.
Your video helped a lot to cement that for me, thanks Mattias. Have a wonderful christmas for all the introspection your videos give me.
It’s really annoying how trying to get better at art makes you get worse at art :(
Currently going through this! Hope I can move on from this soon 😅
Don't you just hate it when you look at old you's drawings and wonder "Damn, how did he do it?" 😂
@@thebookless3381 Yess! 😢
I just went through a very similar thing, and now I'm in a stage where I am just trying to draw what I want, not what I think I should draw as well. It's so validating to have heard someone else go through a similar experience!
I always tell artists never to compare their work to others', but to their own work from the past. Great video!
I was going to post that this video was just what I needed to be told right now. No, what you posted is. @lauramaue thank you so much.
What if my art from the past is better than my current art?
@@technoir2045 First what do you mean by art from the past? I drew in HS and as a young adult, even took come college classes. I also played the guitar back then, poorly but I tried. Now I'm trying to get back into them but it is hard because, while I can see improvements from a month ago it is both much harder and not as good as my past drawing / guitar playing.
In this case I'm starting over and MUST force myself to compare my drawings of this week only with those made weeks and months ago. Never compare yourself to another artist, even if that artist is an earlier, better version of yourself.
My son took years of violin and when we moved his teacher told us that she never accepts former students. Relearning is just too frustrating. What I take that to mean is that the task of taking up art/music again is very hard, so se've got to buckle down and just do it. Don't compare yourself to others or an earlier version of yourself. Period.
As far as my guitar goes I sucked back then. And I'm STILL frustrated at how much better I was back then. I know I felt frustrated back then, but that is more intellectual than the real pain of frustration I feel now.
I've just got to find a reason to help me to stick to it. I'm hoping that I'll soon be able to get enough skill to allow me to enjoy the process of doing either.
I hope this helps. Thinking about it and typing this helps me.
i keep my old art to see how i improve. it's both satisfying to see my improvement and fun while making art as i kinda make it up as i go along, i never know for sure how my art will come out.
Yes :D
As my great teachers from Drawfee once said: "Delete your art!"
this is exactly what i was going to say
But that's a waste
I do the same thing but with a white board in my house i spend all day drawing on it learning different methods with one marker and then when im done I erase it
@@Galaxia53 Mandalas
Very bad idea. It can give you a great boost just to see how far you've climbed those branches, to use the videos analogy. Looking back at your art from a year ago and see how it's different.
No. Don't throw away your old art.
I extremely love two things: 1.The fact that your videos are morals for life, not just specifically art. 2. They talk about things I never see others talk about in the process of making. About the pain, the burden, and the difficulty of having fun on something that, though once brought you joy, somehow feels more of a forced labor now.
Im glad I found your videos, and I'm glad you made them. Thank you.
This was the major issue for me and it's something I hear over and over talking to other artists. This is a wonderful video that not only describes the problem, but the solution. I'm going to draw something fun right now, thank you Mattias.
Yes :)
Just broke down last night overwhelmed by the same things, struggling with adhd and my place in art, and how I feel I’ve failed to get anywhere thus far. Comparing the ease I *perceive* yellow monkey has, even if it’s not a perfect product, thinking not all monkeys are made to paint. Today this video was recommended to me. I needed this and it just showed up, cute and well spoken. Thank you.
EDIT: typo
Pfft, imagein makign a typo
Litreally impossibel fro me
@@tonyhakston536 Jea, smae, I woukd mevwr do sjch tgong
Jesus loves you
EXACTLY
Chineese chickeennnn 🐥🐣
As a trumpet player and a silly digital artist I really felt this in my soul
Same, g'day fellow
My mom said if you never tell people your mistakes (in art) then they’ll never know. No one can see the mistakes YOU see in your art.
I have been both of these monkeys.
The yellow one is my childhood, and the red one is my current adulthood. After I graduated high school, I was left wondering how I was keep going as an artist. What career path I should take, what to specialize in. I needed a worthy portfolio, I needed to compete in the market. So I took learning very seriously.
But it made art making as dry as a desert. I learned things I didn’t even want to and found myself dreading the thing I loved doing.
Now I’m left with a decision. Go back to being the yellow monkey, and create art for fun with no profit in mind. Or buckle down and be the red monkey, and pursue art as a dream career - but potentially burn out my passionate flame.
I just don’t know yet.
I say, do art as a side hustle. Not as your main career, but something you do on the side for either for fun or for some quick commission cash.
While you're doing that, explore. See what other careers are out there. Don't just half ass it though. REALLY LOOK. Do some jobs just because they sound interesting or a test of strength. Not saying they have to be 150$ and hour jobs or whatever. Just something to say you've done it. But while you're there, talk with others, listen to conversations, make friends and connections. Because they might lead you to another adventure to another career you never knew.
All while drawing on the side whenever you got an idea you want to make.
Maybe you'll find something better. If not, them at least you gave it a fair shot. Then, you're passion for art will greatly improve. Just enjoy the baby steps as you grow.
I think the point of this story, is that the Red Monkey has nothing to offer. He may know art theory, and you could say he's better off as a critic of art, but he doesn't have the patience to finish anything because he doesn't know why mistakes are made in the first place. Art is fundamentally flawed by design when considering other mediums: photography captures realism and can alter the object/prop to seem realistic, 3D modeling calculates shapes as they overlap and move to the point of clipping, etc. Even then, all fields end up with mistakes anyway, so learning to deal with failure is more important than having no flaws.
If I was a buyer/entrepreneur looking for talent on a deadline, Yellow Monkey fits the bill, and probably wouldn't say anything bad about the product to boot. Red Monkey could make great quality control, but if he's so harsh on himself, imagine what he'd say to other investors why he didn't finish his own work.
The red monkey would never make it to profit.
Yellow is all tasks in life, find a day job and enjoy when you can. Don't put any stock into it, it's a means to an end. Don't let anyone tell you inside or outside that job you have to invest any more than that.
Then with the time you get by not making the day job your life/mean anything important, think "what would I like to see?"
Then pursuit it joyfully.
You can do both. Life is all about healthy balance. You can make art for content, learn, and still spend a couple hours even a week to have fun. It doesn't have to be only one way and one goal.
Might want to see if there is a way to change the way you look at learning. Personally I find the study side of art is a lot of fun, and seeing that growth the next time I put the pen to paper is rewarding. But if you treat it work, and in return feel that the work doesn't pay off, or doesn't reward. It will sully the experience. There isn't one way to this stuff either, you find the ways that work best for and with you, and push past the things that hold you back.
Make a portfolio while you work towards your main goal, have small obtainable learning goals, and spend a lil bit of time making things you generally find fun and free of the need to post/share it publicly for your own well being. And remember doing something is more than doing nothing, and every bit does help to contribute to something (if you suffer the same as me and not working feels a bit guilty) keep that in mind. Good luck.
Be an orange monkey. Have a fun goal in mind. Keep it small and easy to throw away, so no world building or intricate projects. Just one concept you enjoy that you can serialize. Then start learning the fundamentals to work toward that goal. Balance learning days with fun days. On your fun days, try out the new techniques you learned. On the learning days, apply the lesson to your fun concept. Eventually, rather than seeing learning as a chore, it will become the means to making your dreams a reality. Make that “no biggie” interesting project your portfolio.
I hate learning human anatomy. The only thing that keeps me moving forward is getting to “meet” the characters I’ve dreamt up.
I relate a bit too much to the first monkey, I'm scared of failing even though Art... Is about failing.
You fail again and again until one day, you find something that works... And succeed!
Yet even though I know that, I can't shake off the feeling that I shouldn't fail.
I should be like the second monkey, do things for the hell of it, not caring if it's good or bad, just do it.
You never reach this magical day where you succeed :) if you cant enjoy what you make, even just a small thing, then you cant expect for the enjoyment to just come out of nowhere. You gotta rethink your approach to art in general. I love creating and i love succeeding in something. And i know how devastating it is to just not be good at something. But if you let those thoughts overwhelm you, and become the only things you can think about, youll keep struggling until you decide to drop it altogether. Keep strong, and just try to play around :) its all there is to it
There is no failure
I like the idea that you have to climb down the tree as you have to throw away what you have draw not because it's bad, but because you finished
i'm a writer who usually would only write a scene if i felt it was coming out perfect on the first try - if it wasn't working out exactly right, i'd give up on it and "come back to it later." of course, most of the time i never did, so i barely ever finish anything
recently i forced myself to just write through those moments. even if i felt like the dialogue was coming out stilted or the scene wasn't flowing right i made myself power through it, and now for the first time in as long as i can remember i have a full draft. it really did feel like breathing fresh air at the top of the tree.
thank you, mattias!
Are you plush (I meant polish autocorrect, but if you eat enough pieorgies I guess you become plush too)
@@seronymus i am not polish but i believe in their beliefs (their beliefs = pierogies)
@@fishflake awesome well I hope you get a feeder bf who will give you lots of pierogis while listening to "Hej Sokoli"
If it helps, try taking a scene and completely rewrite it. Keep the general gist there, but don’t try to copy the first version of the scene. If you’re like me, the rewrite will be 10x better because now you’ve already figured out the “skeleton” of the scene (who’s there, what’s happening, what’s the background like, etc.) so now your brain can spend more time filling that skeleton out with fun things like slightly more in-depth descriptions of things, rather than burning energy trying to actively build that scene in my head.
@@KlutzyNinjaKitty you know i think i've done pretty much that unintentionally before, but never really realized that's what i'm doing...i might try to be more deliberate about doing this when a scene doesn't feel right in the future. thanks for the advice, friend!! :~)
"If Im having funn, I know Im on the right path"
I like that
Thank you
A while now, I haven’t found fun in art anymore. Every time I draw I feel so much hatred for it. I feel like this video has made me want to fall in love with it again like I used to
3:08 Art is communication. Ive said this quite a few times, but that is the purpose of art. To communicate something. You can communicate with effort, you can communicate poorly, but at the end of the day if you are trying to communicate something, its art.
We are really in bad shape, too many confused people
Not every piece of art has some deeper meaning? I know a lot of mine was just drawn to use for icons, not to communicate anything
@@nyancat8828 well when you use an icon it has to communicate something. Otherwise why would anyone use it for an icon?
Give me an example of one of your icons, describe it.
does this mean any and all things with meaning is art? Are memes just a new wave of dodoist art
Red Monkey is basically the reason why Art was the only class I failed in school.
All subjects in school outside of art and gym you can basically just sit down, and try to thoroughly understand something the first time around if you don't panic and give it your proper attention. Art and gym require you to repeatedly train your muscles to get better at doing something, and art also takes a certain mentality to do on top of that. Gym I regularly got a B in only 'cuz I tried very hard, but ya know, being one of the only kids that never exercised because they didn't like being sweaty, being in a place with lots of bugs biting them or like any of the physical activities in recess or outside of school, and ya know it's just a recipe for not having a strong body.
I tried to do exercises throughout my life, but had red monkey attitude so I always bit off more than I could chew and hurt myself and would have to take a break until it healed before I try again. It was only until I got Beat Saber in VR where I get yellow monkey attitude where I just didn't care 'cuz fun game, so because Beat Saber is already fun and did not expect it to actually help with exercise. However, it let me start slow and build me muscles so I lost a lot of weight, was able to breathe a lot better, reliable way to trigger tons of sweat to get junk out of the body, and my arms + legs got some nice looking muscles. So I was able to start doing other types of exercises for the spots beat saber doesn't quite cover. I'm actually able to do push ups and stuff now, and I thought I'd never be able to. Still working on getting that six pack! It's kinda funny because I used to have a perfectly round belly, now it's kinda has this 8 looking shape, but it's still getting smaller as time goes on. Gotta say though, starting exercise is the hard part, and whenever you get sick you have to start again. Still going to keep at it though, VR games are probably going to be my go-to video games so I gotta be physically fit to enjoy them to the fullest. Also I main Sephiroth in Smash, he's got a six pack, I need to have a six pack :3
Also, was planning on doing 3D modeling this year as a new years resolution, but I got sick this year more than any other year so I kinda forgot about that as I was constantly trying to catch up on stuff because of all the sick time(co-workers keep comin in sick this year more than other years). I will now attempt to start simple by uploading a retextured model and put it into my schedule again so I can start doing stuff again before the end of the year. Then next year I will attempt to have at least 1 custom made avatar and/or world of decent quality. At this point I'll probably be making a world about trying to simplify some concepts about psychology and make them into visual and interactable visual format.
Speaking of muscles (I think you're right).. Not everyone can have a six pack because of our muscles being different. It's physically impossible without surgery in some cases. We all have different abs.
Thank you so much, Mattias. I just finished writing my novel and now i can pourdly throw it in the trash bin. This is so inspiring
This reminds me of a lesson my professor told the class when we were learning computer science.
"Why does a baby cry when you change its diaper? Because it thinks you're stealing his poop. Throw away the poop!"
I… don’t think the baby thinks that
@@DeathnoteBB yeah i think it's just uncomfortable but this notion is hilarious also
Coming back to say this video has really helped me over the last few months. It feels way easier to finish projects with all this in mind.
This video hit me hard. When I first started drawing, I wanted to be good at it. I was proud at the stuff I made, but I'd get frustrated over every little mistake I made, and I wasn't improving. It got to the point where I just gave up on drawing, and gave up the hope of ever being good at it. I took a break from drawing for a long while, but I eventually got back to it. Except this time, I had no intention of being good at it, I was drawing for fun. And funnily enough my art skills have massively improved. It wasn't until I gave up on being good at art and switched my focus to purely just having fun that I actually started to get good. My art is far from perfect, but I'm drawing (and finishing) a lot more than I have before, and having a lot of fun doing so. And now that I'm more comfortable with where I'm at, I can look at my art more critically and learn from my mistakes without getting frustrated on making them in the first place.
As an artist who has the issue of “it’s not perfect as it needs to be.” And “i’ll never make it, I’m a terrible artist.” This really helps my perspective of art. Thinking of it like this has really helped to open my mind to the steps. So thank you for creating this.
This came at the exact right time for me even with being in engineering instead of art. I had stuggled in college with always putting in so much effort into each project in both school and personally because I knew it could be improved if I learnt more and more about how to present it better or cover all possible bases even if they were unnessesary in the long run. It has been hard to get away from that mindset partially because I enjoyed the aspects I improved and the methods I learned from it. However, my head was clouded from knowing it could be even better if I just did more and burned myself out repeatedly for things I felt the others did fine with even without all the information. I want to try going back to having enjoyment from learning more on what I love but not focuing on it to the point of being a requirement for what I make to be good or even passable. I want to have fun with what I do without feeling it constantly needs to get updated whenever I think of new things to add. I want to bring those thoughts to my next project and move on.
I remember in my digital art class during highschool, I kept missing my due dates due to the fact that I would take so long trying to perfect a drawing. My teacher eventually had enough and told me “Your drawings don’t have to be perfect, otherwise you’d be sitting all day drawing the same line over and over again. Just let yourself go, draw however messy you want and then clean it up later”
Ever since that day I’ve been trying to follow his advice and it has been working nicely for me
I just don't understand why the art teachers in school seem to have made it their lives work to remove all fun from painting. It took 20 years to even dare touch a paint brush again out of fear of making mistakes and being called out for making mistakes. I managed to start painting only after realizing that nothing matters. That I am allowed to make mistakes.
I remember this, I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but I remember this. I was researching something and this just came into my recommended one day but sure why but I watched it all the way through and now it’s here again. This video always seems to show up whenever I get to my own head. I have a goal. It’s very hard to reach and I’m struggling because I’m overthinking things. Just seeing this video again it’s like a sign of getting me to just take a breath. Pace myself. it’s OK you’re doing great. Don’t worry about it too much. Just enjoy what you’re doing and keep doing it.
This is so cute. I draw as a hobby, and I have been missing the point on doing it thanks to constantly comparing myself to other artists and being hard on myself. This reminded me of how I felt before I started thinking that way. I hope I can look at drawing in the same way as before, and remember that I always did it for fun. Very wholesome video :)
Don't pressure yourself with something. Take your time, accept mistakes, and allow yourself to be "terrible".
You don't need to be the best, just make sure you enjoy what you are doing. If you can, try to improve a bit with it.
Things take time, and sometimes stuff might be stressful, but that's okay. Don't push yourself to be "better" and go at your own pace to where it's enjoyable.
bro just made me realize i could get over my social anxiety if i just went about it the way i go about art this literally goes with anything and everything well i just grew a third braincell thanksss
Here the author uses monkeys to represent his frustration at being unable to draw a banana
It isn't tragic because monkeys love bananas, but because they love bananas and are unable to convey their passion to themselves and others through the medium of art
This video is bananas
I really needed this,im slowly losing motivation for art and i didnt do it out of fun making me more and more stress ,but im glad this video exist and have shown me also inspired me to keep going and have fun.. thank you!! The tree feel so much fun to climb now
As someone who's planning on picking up art again, this video was very helpful. Thanks Mattias, still love your content.
Yep, and personally I didn't have fun "climbing' with just making art pieces, it wasn't until I started learning animation that I really enjoyed each "branch", and it took a long time to find an art with a creation process I enjoy. Fantastic video
This is one of the reasons why I love this creator's content; I feel like he understands the psychological and emotional sides there are to not just drawing, but wanting to be an artist. I see a lot of parallels with myself and the first monkey, and I know that's something I need to work on, and having this analogy made by the second monkey, it makes that process a little easier.
Amazing video!
I relate to this so much. I'm a perfectionist and seeing other people who do art actually for fun and create great pieces make me want to quit even more. It's so frustrating, it's like school completely ruined the fun factor art had and now it's been drilled into me that i need to be good enough to have it as a career.. and that in itself ruined my talent.
I wish more people understood the point of art is not exactly to make something beautiful but to make something you ENJOYED making, and having the result be beautiful to you is just another fun part of art!!
I used to be the first monkey for so long. I was so obsessed with creating something to be proud of, to wow others with my skills. And I was never happy. I spent hours trying and failing to make my visions are complete and perfect as possible. I hated doing art.
Now, I let myself get lost in the process, creating because it feels good to put pen to paper. I’ve never been happier with my art since I’ve approached it this way.
Art to me is no longer the destination, but the journey it took to get there. All of the stress and anxiety I had over ruining a piece that SURELY would get hung in the louvre is gone. Now it’s sketchbooks full of ideas and half baked drawings I had fun with
As a musician im happy to have found this. Its so easy to pick up my music and spend so much time worrying about every litte thing. Every high note I know isn’t perfect, every big jump, every little thing that i need to get natural. I used to get freaked out more and more, messing up when i would play even if the mistake was small. When I was in my long practice sessions, however, starting to reach my point of giving up, I would sound my best. I realized that when i worry about every little thing to such a degree I lose the fun and in hand, the power of passion. Its hard to recognize these things and to understand them, but your videos allow for these feelings we have to be cemented. This channel is a blessing.
I'm really glad the algorithm brought me this video at this point In my life. Coming from a traditional art background, I went to school to study 3d animation, it was easy until it wasn't, and I still question if I'm good enough to pursue this career. I look at the other professionals in the industry and I get discouraged. With the abundance of knowledge on the internet, I've wanted to start over so many times. I think I'm going to keep trying, even if I don't see the end goal right now.
this describes it so well. when i try too hard and focus only on the goal i ALWAYS hate the result. but when i simply enjoy doing it i find myself loving the result, even if it is far from perfect
The other day, I was kinda tired, kinda bored, it was probably a little late, sun may have already gone down, maybe close to six, maybe closer to midnight, I dunno. And I was at my computer, doing something I can’t remember. I had been doodling one character from a thing I like on and off for days now, and so I decided to open up another window of MS Paint and started drawing. Didn’t even draw the character, just some random ADHD thoughts I had. And then I drew a line, and that line had a curve. A PERFECT curve. You see, there was a different character from another thing I like that I had tried drawing before on paper and in Paint, but it never came out good. And it was all because of this one. F*cking. Curve. That the character has that’s super hard to draw, and I was literally just kinda doodlin’ and scribblin’ and then that guy popped into my head and I was astonished at how well I had done with that curve. So, I hit Ctrl+S, named my file, and cropped it down to just that curve. Then, I just kinda… drew. I did like 7 revisions slowly going from “I’ll just do the outline” to “Well, he literally only has 3 colors, I can do that” to “Well, he’s look better shaded” to “Wow, that’s awful up there. Let me fix that” to “Let’s add this detail here because it’s a big effort for a small payoff but it’s the small things that matter” and yeah now ofer the past 2 days I’ve just been kinda drawing him because I accidentally drew a perfect curve. It’s proably the only line I’ve neither undone, touched up, covered over, or entirely erased in the entire drawing.
Sorry if this is long and/pr rambly, I’m just tired RN it’s like 12:13 AM of April 17th RN in my timezome and I already took some metalonin like befpre I started writing this so I’m a sleepy sorry if I spell something wrong
I've had this in my watch later for a while now, but dear god I've needed to hear this for so long. Without getting too personal, let's just say I got too caught up in the competitiveness of the art community. I started to hate my work because it didn't look exactly how I wanted it to. I lost sight of WHY I've been doing art my whole life. Because art is fun! And you really don't need a reason other than that.
This is such an accurate representation of how people view art. Artists aren't born with some magical power, we literally just practice our skills. We aren't naturally able to make art where others aren't. I'm a strong believer that there is no such thing as talent. Everyone has the potential to be a great artist, you just need to make art. Of course burnout and artist block is real, but everyone can make art. It's just a matter of not giving up right at the beginning, you really do need to keep going.
I have been afraid of this video. I instinctually knew what it was about…
And I’m not finished but I feel like my whole journey as an artist was exactly this.
The algorithm knows to fucking much man, Yesterday was probably one of the worst days ever in regards to my art journey, i just looked at everything I'd done with disgust, and i was thinking that maybe it was a mistake to start drawing because its been 6 years with hardly any improvements, i really needed this right now. Thank you.
thank you so much I really needed that
I used to enjoy drawing while then I considered learning art after a couple of days of practice I didn't do progress much my sketches just didn't look as good as other artists I kept trying to sketch over and over starting over whenever I feel it is not looking good after couple days of that I thought to myself maybe art is just not for me and I am not as good as I thought.
i think now i know where i was going wrong thank you again.
I do actually climb tree for fun, and it's exactly as you say. You just have to reach out to the next branch. The thing is, it can be terrifying to stand up on a branch, and reach all the way up to grab the next one when you're 20ft off the ground and a single slip can mean serious injury or even death. It's really gets your blood pumping. It can feel the like the same thing with art, even when it's not a source of income, but just a hobby. It good to remember that you can't get hurt from messing up a painting, even though it can really feel scary. Have the courage to do it anyways and you will be amazed by how high you can climb. :)
This is advise to myself as much is it is to anyone else. Good luck out there, and remember it's ok to be afraid.
I really love how motivating your videos always are. I really struggle in doing things simply for fun but maybe thinking about it in terms of climbing trees might honestly help me.
Honestly thank you so much for this. Although it’s not visual art, I’ve been having some similar feelings with creating music and decided to just quit. But this video gave me some hope. So thanks. Thanks a lot
Despite the fact that this video isn't teaching me drawing techniques and such, this motivated me to not care about the imperfections of both my drawings and the stories I write. Drawings are already on the great path as I never really took it seriously, but writing on the other hand is different for me.
I love evoking my creativity into the stories I write, but I often get distracted from actually writing this wonderful ideas just because the stories don't flow right or because the words used kept getting repetitive. I always focus on making outlines for the stories and restricting myself into them because of it, leading me to no longer writing according to what I want.
I also used to be the same in regards to my drawings, wanting to live up to the skills my brother had as I was always in awe from his art. But after years of giving up on drawing, I finally came back to it not because I wanted to start over from my past mistakes, but because I wanted to enjoy doing it just for fun. I didn't care about what strokes I do or the fact that the brush I use are only for sketches. I just wanted to draw, and that made my drawings a lot more better than I had expected.
And with that. through watching this video, I realized the restrictions that I had put on myself in regards to both drawing and writing. I'm beginning to realize why I gave up on writing stories. I now understand why my drawings have been improving compared to my past drawings.
And so, I guess I got my motivation back to write again, especially with the fact that I had already started writing last week. I was stuck on a writer's block and this had help me bring me back to my groove.
Just wanted to rant out my thoughts about this video. Hadn't expected to write it this long to be honest.
Thank you for making this
I'm glad the algorithm showed me this bc this,,, this is important
I always enjoy your encouraging storytelling! You are absolutely my favorite content creator :)
This is the best medicine to artblock ever, I instantly wanna just create again,whatever it is, wether its a videogame or making a new song, I wanna express myself again, thank you~
The art teacher in my school is badass af, he's chill with a lot of stuff.
I just make art because i have cool ideas i want to see and idk cool edgy art is a hell yes.
(I've been drawing ever since i was in 2nd grade, so it took years)
Hope i can into art class next year.
the designs go hard
What a creative way to talk about the depth of a medium! As an oil painter myself I love this. I think this is a great way to explain why video games are such a critically underrated medium; The depth and the rulesets in interactive art greatly expands the creative potential. Your work is such an inspiration
Agreed
This is too underrated man, it’s really well explained.
I really love these videos you do, I think I need to think again about the branches I climb instead of the goals.
There are some pieces that i approach like the red monkey: mainly work i want to do for myself.
When someone asks me a drawing, i instead go full yellow monkey mode: i just do it the best i can, retrace, go back, just go with the flow and what would look better.
I think it's because i am the only receiver when i paint for myself, so i am on my own "eternal waiting room" while i prioritize others' enjoyment.
Dunno if anyone else is built this way, but at least I'm learning to enjoy my works too.
And studies masters in another sketchbook: therefore i have no perfect goal near my scribbles, and can apply my lessons more fluidly in my own way.
Ever since I started just having fun with my art, my improvement has gone at lightning speed. I literally can't relate to people who say art is pain and hard work anymore. Figuring out shapes and colors and lines is the funnest thing in the goddamn world, even and especially when I fail!!!! I really like this video.
Besides, it turns out actually looking forward to and just enjoying an activity is extremely good for continuing to be motivated to do it :P
feels great to come back to this, such a cute video i love it
Welp. This has been the most relatable thing I’ve seen ever since I started trying art
It’s just before now I haven’t passed the
“This isn’t perfect” phase
Remember, there is nothing wrong about copying works of other people for fun/practice/or to have it hang in your kitchen. It does help, it does make you go through logical steps start to finish, even if you don’t know how exactly something was made. Art is also about practice. You like something when you see it turn out good. To make it turn out how you want it, you need practice. Every piece you made matters, even one you hate. The first monkey didn’t do unwell with the paintings it didn’t enjoy making, it was part of the practice. It wasn’t all for nothing, you have to remember that. When you climb trees, you eventually get better from each tree you climb.
I really needed this video right now, thank you
I absolutely needed to see this. As I finished this video, I felt like I looked at my own work and my worries about it and just took a big sigh of relief, and I can move forward instead of stopping myself. Thank you, and as always, amazing work, it truly has touched me
This is literally the entire beginner art community versus pewdiepie right now
Rarelly videos for improving a skill help me but man, I owe you something that I don't even know what it is.
The message is similar to "It's about the journey, not the destination"
I feel like these stories are a great way to learn something.
It’s easy to follow, fun to watch and I understand the words and metaphors being used.
Very well done and inspirational!
its easy to say "draw what makes you happy", or to tell someone not to think so deep about it.
but how do you actually be more like that second monkey? how do you stop worrying or just let yourself create? even in trying to do things i think i'd like, the first monkey's logic of "no, that's wrong" chimes in.
i don't know how to move past it.
I like to scribble sometimes to test out my digital brushes. I scribble on multiple pages, try different strokes, color schemes, maybe I draw a random shape/form, just whatever. Some things I scribble and doodle gives me life, others gives me ideas, colors inspire me, and etc.
Make things that are low stakes. Draw your favorite video game characters. Draw a room and put stuff in it. Draw a cube, then draw it again with parts blown off, swiss-cheesed, worms drilling through it, turn it into a house, turn it into a snow cube (cube version of a snow globe), etc
Don't try to make a mona lisa. Make desk doodles instead.
I've recently started working with leather. I just tell myself it's practice, I'm doing a rough draft, or that I need it to be crappy so I don't mind messing it up.
draw dogshit on purpose
also im gonna contradict the other person and say don't draw your favourite characters if you wanna cut loose, because when your drawing your favourite its a lot more noticeable and frustrating if you mess up or go off model.
for me this is mostly the case with female characters. male characters are a lot more laid back because they usually have a lot more rugged details and aren't meant to look cute or attractive, so you can get away with messing up their face a little without it sticking out.
drawing monsters is like the extreme of that. if you're ever feeling wound up tight, try drawing a goblin or something because theyre literally impossible to fuck up. theyre supposed to look weird and ugly, go nuts.
linework is a big thing with relaxing too. by all means be precise and deliberate with your strokes when you want something to look clean, but focusing on that can make you too rigid. go full on chicken scratch once and a while if your drawings feel flat, because that carefree style of drawing will invigorate you with a lot of energy and confidence.
theres also the matter of expectations of the end result. you will never be able to get something to look quite like how you imagined it in your head, and this can lead to disappointment. but some of the best drawings you'll do will be improvised, with no particular 'image' in mind beyond bits and pieces of ideas that come to you as you go. thats what the branches in the video are about; there are an endless amount of choices and creative decisions to make at every single step of the process, but it doesn't matter which path you take because all of them will eventually lead you to the end. if you try to force a specific result that you have in your head, you're essentially forcing yourself to go down one specific path, a path you may not be skilled enough to take. this inevitably leads to frustration and feelings of inadequacy.
thats why you need to avoid attachment to your artwork. don't delete it, because old work can be good for a benchmark or a reference for a technique you've forgotten, but don't ever worry about how your art turns out. its about the process, not the result. i.e, its about the climbing, not reaching the top.
also just wanna add that drawing on physical mediums instead of digital can very quickly teach you to become unattached. being able to ctrl Z anything can instil a perfectionist mindset, one that can trap you in indecision and have you spend an inordinate amount of time on a single drawing. im not even over this myself, i dont draw traditional very often because botching an otherwise good drawing with one wrong line is still annoying.
There is no wrong and take your time to learn, try new things all the time. Don't rush a piece, finish it when you're ready.
As a person who likes to draw, only this few years I started to love my art, when I always drew in my phone or in paper, I always looked at the drawing and thought "this doesn't look as I imagined it" And "other people make better art than this", I always felt like my work was horrible, and after probably a year of not drawing anything, I decided to do sketches, tiny sketches of things I liked at the moment, I decided to look up tips of how to draw better, and trying to make my artstyle better. And after a few months, I did a complete drawing, and I felt happy, because I loved how it looked, and I had fun doing it.
Art is fun.
Love the tree analogy. But I agree, the second monkey is stupid.
oh god this is like watching blue period again i’m going to cry
We should take life in general more lightly.
i’m a soon to be animation student at a school not very known for its animation. i feel like i failed because i’m not going to an art school, i got denied from my dream program at my dream school and it felt like everything fell apart. i’m afraid that i’m not a very good artist, and that i was never meant to be. that some people just have the skills and the talent and i don’t. but this video made me feel a bit better about everything. i love art, i love it a lot and that’s why i keep doing it even when things don’t go my way. because i’m having fun, and eventually i’ll be able to do what i want. i’ll be able to be at the top of that tree. and even if it takes a while to get there, maybe i’ll be alright
I wish I could actually put this lesson into practise. I've been this way for so long that Monkey 1 is engrained into every thought I have. I agree, I want, but when I try to impliment it never works. It's like I know it, but I don't believe it...
I'm really glad this videos are funny, have a comedic element to it, I would've ignored them otherwise, and missed out on them
Squidward and Spongebob
Beautiful master piece about having fun with art
With ai art trash on the rise this is a video worth watching. It explains that art has meaning
Fr
I love the stories you tell. The set up is always kind of goofy, but by the end, there is always something important to learn.
yep, remember the times when we used to draw with crayons in sketchbook without any headaches
was there a time like this?
no
I think I really needed this
sending this to every "i can only draw a stick figure" there's ever been
I FEEL LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR THIS
ONCE I STARTED DRAWING MORE FOR FUN INSTEAD OF WORRYING ABOUT HOW IT WAS GONNA TURN OUT, I STARTED DRAWING MORE AND I GOT A LOT BETTER, ITS HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT THIS VIDEO DOES PERFECTLY
Well shit.
i really needed to hear that.
Great watch, left me smiling ear to ear.
I feel seen, called out, and validated. Thanks.
This animation is not about painting...
... IT'S ABOUT DRIVE
IT'S ABOUT POWER
WE STAY HUNGER
WE DEVOUER...
LMFAO
This made it into my “knowledge” playlist.
I've tried a lot of creative endeavors and dropped all of them right up until I bought a guitar impulsively at 3 in the morning after a particularly nasty day. Even after 4 years, I'm still awful at playing it, but I have a lot of fun being awful and that's all that matters to me. People are too good at taking their hobbies far too seriously and ruining what makes them worth doing in the first place.
THAT is EXACTLY how i draw art.
Ive never known anyone else to say how i feel about this.
Bruh it wont let me edit the comment
Anyways, thankyou so much for sharing this idea around the world. This video is going in my favourites playlist.
[i really can't express enough how much i love this video, talking about something i never knew if I'd find relatable with people but i find very eye opening
Soz im very tired so it prob dont make sense, i cant be bothered to write it all out properly lol]
I like how the characters look how they act
Yeah
@@Faunadude Yea
i have art block, still have it. but my god this gave me a relief